Journey to meet King

Train was on time, because it originates from the station where I was boarding, Pune. So, I must say I was on time to board the train. I and my brother had a plan to visit the famous National Parks in India Kanha and Bandhavgadh. My first destination was Bilaspur. This is the only place in India where I can find my most of the relatives.
After reaching Bilaspur at 4 P.M. my next train was after 9 P.M. which I don’t know. So very less time to meet everyone. I just kept my bag at my uncle’s place and relaxed for merely 2-3 hours and called my brother to ask when to start the journey. He told me not to worry as Badhavgadh is merely 250 km from here we can board any train after 9 p.m. which goes in the direction as he had some work to finish before leaving Bilaspur.
Well he reached my place at 10 P.M. and we left for a planned journey to board an unplanned train. We got an express train to a destination which I don’t remember. What I remember is the station Umariya where we have to get down and from there we will have to reach the gate named “Tala” as the entrance gate for Badhavgadh.
My brother was cursing me that I didn’t brought my jacket or sweeter in the mid October. This was the coolest area in the night. The temperature suddenly drops to 8-9 degree in night as compared to morning 25-28 degree. We thought to take auto to reach Tala which was 30 km away from station. As a matter of fact there was no other vehicle we can get. Bargaining in the morning 4o’clock was not fun but we did. He agreed to take us on an auto ride to Tala for Rs. 350. It was not bad for me and not bad for him either. He made his first stop to a close petrol pump in the village. He woke up the man in the petrol pump and praised him that whatever time it would be the man will woke and will give the petrol to autowala in the city. I was just wondering at the person giving the fuel. Next stop was the old broken house where he woke up his friend saying it would be safe to take him. The road to Tala is rickety and not safe to drive alone. Fear was not any dacoit but the Tiger and leopards and here the excitement pours in our journey.
Driving auto at a speed of 20 kph he was telling us the stories of the wild animals moving in the buffer zone. The zone just outside the core park. Surprisingly we saw some animals too. What was most torching to me was the cold in the forest. I must say this was around 8-10 degree and speed of auto was pulling the mercury down to 4-5 degree. I was shivering. I managed to get a cap borrowed by my brother and it saved me from the cold air just for namesake. We reached the gate in an hour and rushed towards to office to book a gypsy. The cost was too high but in front of our eagerness to watch the tiger it was nowhere. We got the second in the queue to enter the gate. Now the bad journey was to begin. Gypsy was running at the speed of 20 kph in the national park. I was just wondering what is happening. It was a kind of race among the drivers. I got the answer of this F1 race that we have to reach a point called centre point first. As this is the place where we will get to see the tiger on elephant if elephant spots the tiger in the Jungle. They called that “an elephant show”. Well we just seat back and I tried to take some photograph but the speed of the car was more than my camera shutter speed and the pictures were blurring.
We reached the centre point and got the bad news after 1 hour waiting there. No tiger spotted by elephants. Well after that we left the place and went into deep jungle to spot the tiger ourselves but we didn’t find any.
Depressed we returned back to the gate and got a place to sleep for a while before the next ride in the evening.
Evening we took the gypsy again. This time we told the driver not to drive fast and he replied he won’t as the tiger show happens in the morning only. We were going at the speed of 5-10 kph. Guide took us to a small pond assuming tiger will feel thirst and come to the pond. We sat there for 15min waiting for tiger, and decide to continue the journey in the jungle. As per my knowledge and guide saying when tiger walks there is warning call given by the animals nearby. So, we were trying to hear any warning calls. Suddenly there was some noise in the bush nearby. At first we thought it is a sambar of other animal. We stopped and watched. Here the king was walking in front of us. Full grown mail tiger they call him B2. There were no warning calls.
What a walk. Royal and brave. Like he didn’t care for any one. Like he knows he is the King of the jungle. One minutes of seeing this tiger was one of the best experiences of my lifetime.
We continued our journey in the jungle but didn’t saw any more tiger in the jungle. After 1hr of ride we decide to return back to gate. This was a happy ending of the journey one can expect.